Of Smarties, Slovakia and Sensible Habits (A literate generation?)

Name: zoe_page_1

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Product:	A literate generation?
Date:	31/08/01 (136 review reads)
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A few months ago I had my first glimpse of what it must be like to be unable to read when I was travelling around Eastern Europe alone. It was fun but at times it began to bug me that I couldn’t understand even the simplest signs, and that I had no one to be worried with. Not only were they in Slovakian or Hungarian or whatever, but they were only in that. In Vienna, for example, things are often explained in English, French and Italian as well as German, but not here. It was pretty scary.

I am one of those people who loves to read. I read all the time, and I don’t restrict myself to books. In fact one of the things I like reading most of all, and I know this sounds odd, is the small print in holiday brochures – you know the back pages where they tell you cots are available on request, they cannot be held responsible for building works near your hotel and, since this is not England, you might not get tea and coffee making facilities in your room.....

When we designed our ideal houses at primary school, while my friends would draw their big screen TVs, I’d opt for wall to wall bookshelves. We’re getting there at home (hall, living room, morning room, computer room, bedrooms all full of the things, and a sure fire way to tell if I’m around is if there’s a pile of magazines on the scales in the bathroom) and when I was younger we had buckets of books lying around within easy reach – Mr Men, Topsy and Tim, you know the sort. As far as I can remember, books weren’t a treat. They were normal. Bedtime stories came in groups (never just the one) and carried on for years, even after I learnt to read. There’s just something about having someone else do the reading. I’m not sure if I should admit this, but during a break-from-revising shopping trip during A Levels, we came across a new (well new to us) Milly Molly Mandy Book. Bed Time stories re-started until I went to uni (and there was even a
relapse for the few days I was at home before coming out here). Hell for me would be a world like in Farenheit 451 where books are banned. I like them, I need them and I’m not happy without them.

But, lots of people do not feel this way. If reading is a chore then it’s hardly going to be something you want to do again and again. Believe it or not I know how this feels too. At uni last year I forced myself to read German as well as English books as I really wanted to improve. This was hard work to start with and often I would get fed up halfway through – with an normal novel I usually finish within a day (or two if I have to do something else of the studying/going to work variety). With German, however, it can take me longer, and I get impatient. I’ve talked to others who have this problem when reading in their native language, and I can identify with them.

Growing up I loved American magazines and television shows and was always amazed by how pupils could get to the age of 16 or 17 and still be in school based on the fact they were an award winning football player or track star and not be able to read very much at all. I didn’t believe this happened in England too until 6th form when we started having mixed lessons with the boys school. Now don’t get me wrong, this lot could read (and so you would hope after 5, or in some case more, years in small classes at a private school) but we were amazed by how badly they read. We had to read out loud in one subject and sat there stunned as they trundled along, sounding out the words. Pretty pathetic for this macho rugby players :-)

So what’s the solution? Being taught to read well early on is important, but there are only so many hours in a day so to increase reading and writing time in schools would detract from other subjects. Small class sizes can help to some extent, but I can read perfectly well and enjoy doing so, and spent my “formative”
years in a class with 38 others so it can’t just be that. Setting books to be reviewed is fine but how many pupils really read them, and don’t just watch the film? Some of my friends at uni admit to having got ‘A’s in GCSE English Lit by watching the film the night before and never having read Macbeth or Lord of the Flies. Scary again. Many children do not want to read – they prefer to watch TV, play computer games, surf the net, kick around a football, anything but.

The only way I can see to get around this is to show kids how much fun reading is, and this means starting young -if babies and toddlers learn to love books, chances are they’ll grow up loving to read.

Top tips (for website details see below):

 Read yourself. Show a good example by sharing your reading: newspapers, magazines, letters, birthday cards, etc. Remember, it doesn’t have to just be books – anything will do (even holiday brochures....)

 Have books as toys. Keep tough board books in the toy box and play with them together. Buy a bath book – how I loved these when I was little.

 Visit your library - it’s free to join! All libraries have children’s sections and some run parents and toddler groups. Saturday afternoons were always library time when I was little – after all morning training in the gym I needed some intellectual stimulation

 Make a time to read. Make a bedtime story as much a part of bedtime as brushing teeth. As you saw above, bedtime stories have always been a part of my life

 Keep books in your bag. A long wait in the doctor’s surgery or waiting for the bus can seem less boring if you can share a book. When I used to baby-sit I would sometimes take the littlest kids to the park on the sea front. Having a book on hand meant we could enjoy a “quiet time” while they had their snacks.


 If English is not your family’s first language, you can buy dual language books. If you speak another language, read foreign stories to your kids in your native language. It doesn’t confuse them as people seem to think, and is a great way to bring them up bilingually (although a certain sister of mine objected to French stories, and indeed people speaking French when she was very young.)


Tips on making it fun

 Buy books as presents – when I was younger a good deal of my presents were books. For my 18th birthday I think I got about 20 novels (my choice) and right now there is a nice pile waiting for me at home, just begging to be read (bought from amazon in July with dooyoo points, so remember when you read my ops, you’re funding a nice, socially acceptable addiction ;-) )

 Read aloud with different voices for the characters, and you can also add in some sound effects. Don’t feel silly doing so. The way I’ll always remember Enid Blyton books is in my mother’s voice. When I babysat for one family I used to take lots of books along and we’d all gather on the youngest’s bed and read for an hour or so (oh my voice – I’m in awe of all parents who do this daily, once or twice a month was enough for me)

 Change the words in their favourite story and see if they notice – I did. Missing out pages or changing bits never worked with me although luckily (?) it did with some of my babysitees when I had just had enough

 Tell stories about when you were little – often so much better than “proper” stories since they are usually mostly true.

 Listen to story tapes. – great for in the car, or when your voice has gone. Oh, the memories of my Mr Pinkwhistle tape....

 Have alphabet magnets on the fridge and make words together. Or do as our family did and collect sma
rtie tops (the coloured things on the end of the tubes). We must have hundreds in various Parmesan (!) containers in the cupboard. Once I took these into Guides for a patrol activity and people were amazed (and perhaps scared) by how many we had. To collect them, don’t just keep yours from the tubes, pick them up off the floor and disinfect when you get home (and don’t get me started on how kids these days need a bit of dirt to keep them healthy.....)


Some websites :

www.rif.org.uk (where a lot of these tips came from)

www.familyschool.com (American, but other that that great ;-) )

Hope this helps. Reading rulz!

(Answers below relate to the kids for whom I've babysat)

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